• Met says the depressed rains this month are caused by La Nina, a cooling of the Pacific Ocean near the Equator.
• At the Coast and in Central, rains will end in the third or fourth week of December.
Image: FILE
The short rains have almost ended in several regions, especially in Northeastern Kenya.
The Met department says more regions will go dry next week.
Met director Stella Aura said the dry season has already begun in some parts of Marsabit, Mandera, Wajir, Garissa and Isiolo, Turkana, West Pokot and Samburu counties.
The remaining parts of these counties will begin to go dry next week.
The update should help ministries plan interventions for the long dry season ahead.
Aura said in the southeastern lowlands of Kajiado, Kitui, Makueni, Machakos and Taita Taveta, the rains will end in the second to the third week of this month.
Parts of these counties might still get scattered rains this week or next.
Aura said the depressed rains this month are caused by La Nina, a cooling of the Pacific Ocean near the Equator.
“This is associated with below-normal rainfall over Kenya especially over the eastern sector of the country,” she said.
The coastal strip will have occasional, below average rainfall this month.
This will also be the case for the highlands east of Rift Valley and Central Kenya, including Nairobi, Nyeri, Embu and Meru counties.
At the Coast and in Central Kenya, the rains will end in the third or fourth week of this month.
Western Kenya and Rift Valley highlands are the only regions predicted to have a wet Christmas.
“The entire month is likely to be wet with occasional heavy storms that are likely to be more frequent in the afternoons and night. Cessation is likely between the fourth week of December and the first week of January,” Aura said.
Last month, weather experts warned Kenya and the rest of the Horn of Africa to prepare for possible drought next year.
The World Meteorological Organization says the region, which is experiencing La Niña, will be drier than normal early next year. La Niña is often associated with dry conditions in East Africa and heavy rains in Southern Africa.
The WMO said there is 90 per cent possibility the dry conditions will continue through March or May next year.
This, added to the impact of the desert locust invasion, is likely to add to food security challenges in the region, it said.
United Nations humanitarian groups are already working with the WMO to identify areas most at risk of drought.
WMO experts and humanitarian colleagues convened in November to analyse the season ahead.
This year’s La Niña is expected to be moderate to strong. The last time there was a strong event was in 2010-11, followed by a moderate event in 2011-12.
(Edited by V. Graham)